Meeting Paris Agreement Targets Would Create 24 Million Jobs Globally

by Marlene Cimons (Nexus Media) … By working to achieve the stated goal of the Paris Agreement, to limit warming to 2 degrees C, most countries will see a net gain in employment.

“Our findings show that if we take action to limit climate change, we will have more jobs by 2030 than by not doing anything,” said Guillermo Montt, author of the study and a senior economist in the research department of the International Labor Office, a special UN agency that focuses on labor issues. “More jobs will be created than those that are lost, so the economy and countries as a whole stand to gain.”

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… United States employs more than four million workers in clean power, clean transport and energy efficiency, according to a report issued earlier this year by the Environmental Defense Fund. In the rural Midwest, clean energy jobs already outnumber those in the fossil fuel industry, according to a report recently released by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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Nevertheless, fossil fuel workers’ fears about their future are real and should not be dismissed, Montt said. “Jobs are very important, and the fear of losing a job is a legitimate concern for workers, families and communities,” he said. “This is why any plan to advance climate needs to consider the impact on workers who lose out. Jobs will be lost, and those workers, their families and communities need to be supported with appropriate policies for them to be willing to change their lives and careers for this.”

Montt said governments will need to provide protections for workers in the fossil fuel industry and training to help them find jobs in other fields. “The transition must happen for the sake of our planet and our children,” he said. “But it will not happen by itself. We need to make sure that those who lose out are protected, heard and considered so that the transition is just. The only way a transition will happen is if it is just.”

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“One way to make it happen is to develop a plan with the workers themselves,” he said. “They know what their skills are and where they can be put to use. …”

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“If we do nothing, by 2050 to 2100, we will really start feeling the effects of climate change, which will destroy jobs. …” READ MORE